Trump News

Executives at conservative outlet Newsmax are furious with the Republican National Committee for attempts to shake them down for a $4 million commitment to carry a GOP debate.

According to a report from Axios, those complaints also include a belief that the RNC is manipulating who controls the debates.

One of the featured guests on tomorrow's CBS Sunday Morning is former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming), whose forthcoming book not only excoriates former President Donald Trump, but her fellow Republicans as well.

During the interview, CBS' John Dickerson asked Cheney if she stood by her claim that Trump winning a second term in the White House would signal "the end of the republic." Cheney nodded, and said that the once-reliable institutions meant to curb executive overreach would no longer apply if Trump was voted back into the presidency.

According to former Solicitor General Neal Katyal, Donald Trump's loss on Friday in an appeals court ruling on his presidential immunity defense claim was bad for the former president but what made it worse was who signed off on blowing it out of the water.

Appearing on MSNBC with host Jonathan Capehart, the legal analyst joked that the assertions by Trump lawyers that the president could commit illegal acts with impunity was so ridiculous a "fourth grader" could see through it, before pointing out that an appointee on the appeals court panel that ruled against him used to be one of Trump's top White House lawyers.

That, he noted, does not bode well for the future of the embattled ex-president as even more lawsuits loom.

Speaking with host Capehart, Katyal smirked and explained, "I think the average fourth grader can tell you attempting to overturn a lawful election doesn't exactly fall within the job description of the president."

"This appeals court yesterday made that important distinction official," he added.

ALSO READ: Supreme Court cowards are hiding behind a hollow ethics code. Here’s how to fix that.

"And, Jonathan, notably, on that appeals court was a judge, Judge [Gregory] Katsas," he pointed out, "who is not just a Trump appointee, he was Trump's deputy White House counsel, you know."

"So [he was] the number two lawyer at the White House and Katsas ruled against Donald Trump," he continued. "So, that tells you all you need to know. Trump can try to spin this as a bunch of Obama judges, but no, these are Trump judges."

Appearing on MSNBC early Saturday morning, the Guardian's Hugo Lowell followed up on his reporting that Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Mark Meadows will not be offered plea deals by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis by noting the Georgia prosecutor is sitting on a mountain of evidence.

Prompted by host Katie Phang over whether the cases Willis has is rock solid against the former president, Lowell referred back to her indictment that hinted she has evidence that the House Jan. 6 select committee did not have to use when it came to proving attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

"I think it is notable the evidence that was in the indictment against Trump that Fani Willis had, which was not in the D.C. indictment, you know she had a lot of evidence that was separate from the January 6 committee found, what the federal investigation found, and, also it applies to Mark Meadows," he told the host.

ALSO READ: How Trump’s mouth is killing American exceptionalism

"She had a lot of points in the indictments about how Meadows was coordinating with state officials, where he was giving both in his capacity, maybe as a White House official, but also, what he was doing on behalf of Trump as a campaign, as a presidential candidate," he continued. "So, I think there were notable instances of evidence that Fani Willis had, but the federal indictment did not have."

"I think it speaks to the strength of her argument," he concluded.

You can watch below or at the link.

According to legal scholar Benjamin Edwards, a recent lawsuit filed by America First Legal, headed by former Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller, is cause for the courts to come down hard and sanction the right-wing advocacy group for bringing frivolous lawsuits that he called fraudulent.

Noting that Miller's group has filed a security fraud lawsuit against retail giant Target, Edwards wrote for the Daily Beast that the lawsuit has no chance of succeeding and is a waste of the court's time — and that sanctions against America First Legal are called for.

Edwards, the current chair of the Securities Regulation Section for the Association of American Law Schools, wrote that not only should judges issue sanctions, but that the appropriate state bars should investigate the group.

Noting that the Target lawsuit is based on a Miller grievance that the retail chain "sold LGBTQ merchandise and ran a Pride campaign" and thereby defrauded investors, the legal expert labeled the lawsuit fraudulent in its assertions.

Using a recent report on Donald Trump doling out a pardon to a supporter which, in turn, led to a massive collapse of a separate Department of Justice investigation, one former U.S. attorney suggested a second Trump term could lead to more abuse of presidential pardon powers.

In a column for MSNBC, former prosecutor Barbara McQuaid suggested an unrestrained Trump would use his reconstituted pardon powers to not only help out family and friends but also to reward supporters who did his bidding, and to seek out revenge for any slights he feels he was subjected to.